


Red

by Pigeon_theoneandonly



Series: N7 Month Prompt Challenge 2020 [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Post-Mass Effect 3, background shenko, happy mom feels, shepard lived!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27440776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pigeon_theoneandonly/pseuds/Pigeon_theoneandonly
Summary: After the war, Hannah Shepard reflects on what it means to win.
Relationships: Female Shepard & Hannah Shepard
Series: N7 Month Prompt Challenge 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1999261
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Red

Two blurs of red orbited each other in a tightening blur against the green-gold grass. From the attic of the sprawling farmhouse, they seemed the same size, spiraling closer and closer until they coalesced into a single blob with a peal of high-pitched child’s laughter. 

Hannah Shepard stood at the window, holding back the curtain with her hand. Her grandson’s legs flung out in careless abandon as her daughter spun him round and round. 

“Such beautiful copper hair,” mused one of her daughter’s in-laws; Hannah couldn’t keep them straight. “Genetics are infinitely surprising.”

Referring, of course, to the darker looks of most of the Alenko clan. Hannah made a tching sound. “Everyone in my family’s a redhead. It’s a tenacious gene.”

The woman chuckled, and went back to folding away blankets. Hannah continued to watch the scene below. Tenacious, indeed. This was not a sight she’d ever imagined. Much less hoped for. She was not, herself, the most family-oriented of individuals. But of course she’d loved her daughter. Of course she had.

And she’d lost her. Twice.

That first time Hannah still didn’t quite understand. She lost her ship. She lost her life? Impossible to believe, and yet, it paled before the alternative, that her daughter let them go on believing her dead for two long years. And the second—

The second…

Hannah licked her lips. Swallowed, once. 

She never met Kaidan until that comm link. A part of her still marveled at that, all these years later, that in the middle of all that desperate uncertainty, he found a moment to locate her and let her know what he’d found in the ruin of the Citadel. It spoke deeply to the character of the man her daughter had chosen. Truth be told, he was the first of any of her partners to impress Hannah in any way. 

Seeing her daughter lying in that dreadnought ICU…

Hannah’s hand went, unconsciously, to her own graying hair, a few broad streaks of red still shining through. Her husband had grumbled, when their daughter was born. _As soon as I saw that hair, I knew she’d be trouble._ And god knew that proved true. 

A bad memory, long consigned. Hannah gave herself a shake and let the curtain fall away. Dumb luck was the only reason any of them stood here today. Dumb luck, or providence. She’d stopped caring long ago. What mattered were those two redheads on the lawn, laughing like the world had never been more perfect.

Hannah would bless that any day.


End file.
